i invite you to turn this morning to the gospel of john as we are uh we recently began this study and this morning we are continuing in chapter one uh you'll find that on page 1127 in those bibles that are in front of you and we'll pick up this morning at verses 19 through 34 19 through 34 of john chapter one it gives me a great joy to come here every week and to know that there's a congregation that gathers that loves God's word. That is worth so much today, so I'm just commending you that this is, I may receive many positive statements about this or that, but I want you to know that I view this congregation that way as a deep love for God's word, and I'm grateful to be able to deliver it to you every week. Beginning at verse 19, and this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? He answered, no. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and bore witness that this is the Son of God. And there ends the reading of God's Word. the purpose of uh john's gospel uh what we've been studying in the prologue is really to blow our minds over who has come to us from heaven i mean that that is the effect of this it is meant to blow our minds so that we say wow this is absolutely awesome john is mind blown that god would ever do something like this uh god would send his um his eternal son to deliver us and to save us and demonstrate this kind of love to a realm that has responded to him as the way we have. When he saw this, when he finally knew him, when he understood this, it changed his life forever. The purpose of the gospel is to bring about this gospel, a witness about Jesus Christ to the world, who he is, and knowing who he is that we would believe and believing have life in his name. A witness that is powerful, a witness that is true, a witness that is life-changing. The sad thing is, is that too many Christians in our day are silent about Jesus. It would be curious to think about and challenge ourselves a little bit. How much have we ever, in the course of our busy lives, opened our mouths and told anyone, any lost person, about the name of Jesus? Wouldn't that be a tragedy if we've never done it once? Why is that? And why would we be silent about this? Well, I could give you the reasons. In some ways, I think the pastors, and I put myself here, are part to blame for this. Because there's a direct tie to your desire to see the lost saved and to even care about that as you're going through life. And with that tie with how the ministry has spoken and been captivated by the work of our Savior. If the ministry is not captivated with Jesus, why do I expect anyone else to be? Why would I expect anyone to be out talking about Him? And you can see that if a church's drive, and people don't see this today, if its drive is to entertain people, there will be little enthrallment with the work of Jesus. Little. Very little. People will come up to church not expecting to hear about Him and more concerned about their own daily lives and their own daily interests than about Jesus. Well, who would want to speak of him then? He hasn't really affected you very much. This chapter is about the ministry of Jesus and how that has affected the testimony. What that means as we give witness to Jesus and what that means as his name is spreading out to the ends of the earth. when we are saved, as Peter would say later, thinking about this indescribable gift that God has given to us, when we discover His true identity, when we realize this indescribable gift of what God has actually done for us, then we raise our voices to become His witnesses. It's directly tied to that. And that's what we're really studying this morning. In a special way, we are zeroing in, and we're looking at the ministry of John the Baptist, and why John the Baptist was so important in the place as a witness of Jesus. He provides us a look at what a true witness is, which is, as I think you'll see, crucial for ministry today. Absolutely crucial for ministry today. What is a witness? What does he sound like? What does he look like? And it should greatly encourage us this morning to follow in his footsteps, to have our ministries look and sound a lot like what John did. The more, I believe, we look like John and understand what his ministry was, the stronger our witness is going to be. So we're looking at this this morning by looking at certain things that are emphasized in the text. And if you were to pull out certain emphases and themes, you'll notice here first that John is really much in denial, you'll notice, of himself. and then he's uh he then goes on to describe his own identity and then his witness so we're looking at his denial his identity and his witness it's a very simple breakdown and this is an important one we'll start here with the denial and i want you to think about everything that we've learned so far in the prologue of john as we have gone through this marvelous prologue this introduction to the book as now we move on to the preparation of Jesus's ministry notice um so far how many themes have been brought together between uh John has used of Genesis and Exodus to tell us the story of Jesus we have seen right from the beginning that John was working with the original creation story to tell us that the new creation has now come with the arrival of God's eternal son into this world in human flesh the new creation theme is picked up all over the beginning of the chapter and just as a side note i want you to see this i'm not spending a lot of time on this but i think it's important for you to see that this theme is picked up think of the original creation as the six days and then we had the seventh day of rest all of these days are picked up here you have at the beginning of john two sections of three days and then the seventh day where he turns the water to wine in a celebration so he's he's using all of these things the first three days here are really the preparation for jesus's ministry with john the baptist which is where we are today the second set of three days is really the gathering of his disciples and then the celebration. So it's really kind of outlining the whole new creation work as we look at it. So this morning I want to focus on the carpet being rolled out for Jesus, if you will. The first three days. And they are captured here with none other than the work of John the Baptist. Now the first thing you'll notice here is how strong he is in denial of himself. Notice how simple this is in verse 9. So simple that I thought it's difficult to preach in some ways. Notice this. This is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I'm not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. John was out preaching and baptizing, and he was drawing huge crowds. Huge crowds, so much so that the religious authorities, the Pharisees, you'll notice who are mentioned here, have taken notice, and he now is on their list to interrogate. They want to know who he is. They want to know what authority he came to do this, and why in the world he is baptizing, and telling Jews to get baptized, because baptism was only for Gentiles, dirty Gentiles. The offense was that he was calling the nation of Israel to repentance. Now, we know from the other Gospels that a rumor was spreading that he was possibly the Christ. Luke's Gospel says that when it says in Luke 3, Now, as the people were in expectation, it was an expecting period for the arrival of somebody great, all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not. John knows this, and as soon as the interrogation begins, you'll notice that it says there in a very repetitious way, which is used by the writers to make a very strong point where he says, he did not deny, he confessed, did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. They go on. What then? Who are you? Are you Elijah? The Jews asked this because of the prophecies of Malachi, that before Christ would come, Elijah would appear, and John is very strong here again in saying, I am not. Now, Christ may have applied it that way. I think the basic point to take this as is to realize John had such humility that he would not apply that to himself. It was not a literal fulfillment of that prophecy. John refused to take that honor is the point. So notice here the denial. I am not Christ. I am not Elijah. And they hit him with one more. Are you the prophet? You'll remember that the Lord had promised to Moses that there would be a prophet that would come from among him that like him. And John is very strong here. I will raise up a prophet from among your brethren and put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command you. Are you the prophet? No. Why is this being emphasized? Why the emphasis on this? Well, because it's showing us the character of a true witness. This may not seem like a big point to us this morning, but this is a really big point for all of Christian ministry. John, in chapter 3, will say something that is absolutely important. He will say that I must decrease and he must increase. You stand back from this. I think the first sort of impression here of a true ministry and a true witness for Jesus, of Jesus, about Jesus, the only way ministry is ever going to be effective is when it is not about the one witnessing. That seems to be so apparent, doesn't it? The only way witness is ever going to be effective is when it's not about the one witnessing. Right? if the ministry ever becomes about the one preaching, you can apply it here, you can apply it anywhere. If it's ever ultimately about that person, something's gone wrong. That's not saying that the witness is not about what Jesus has done for us and these sort of things that we can never speak about that. It's saying this, that all true ministries have an aim. All true ministries have a goal and it is not to bring attention or glory to us. Not to make us front and center in the life of the church. Not to make us as the CEO or the captain. It's not our aim. It's not our goal. You remember Jesus would say the aim of the Pharisees was they loved to receive the praise of men. So let me challenge us then just for a moment here. Would you be satisfied this morning if I kept this light and easy? If I told some stories today about my family? You guys all like those, I know you do. If I gave some good jokes and you laughed a lot? If it was a really good, positive, upbeat experience for all of us today. Would that satisfy you? Thank you. For many Christians going to church, it's that. When the ministry is about us, when it becomes about us, it's not a denial of us, but rather when we are putting other men front and center, have you ever thought of the consequences of this? I mean, you apply these questions across the board. I can apply them to me. Pastor, are you the centerpiece? Are you the prophet? Are you the Savior? See, that may not seem like anything that's revolutionary here, but it's the very air the church has fallen into. See, this is framing our whole way of thinking about witness. This is framing how we are to look at the church and about ministry. Why is the witness of Christianity largely dying in the West today? Why are churches emptying today? They are. Why are we seeing few genuine converts and we're simply in a burned over district now in the United States? If John the Baptist, think about this for a minute. If John the Baptist is telling us that all true ministry and all true witness is not about us and not about him, that means this. Think about this today. That means then that your worship and why you are here today is not about you. How does that make you feel? That doesn't sell well with people. This is why people want things that are about them. This is why things that are pressing on lives, think about this, things that are pressing on our lives and things that confront us, really what we all want is a better experience to make us feel good about ourselves so that we can leave and think we did something for God. But at the end of the day, the question has to be asked, do we come here? What reason do we come here for? And what is the purpose for our gathering? Many people today sit dissatisfied in church for this very reason. They don't really know what the church should be. They don't really know what we're doing and why we're doing it. So we're on this endless quest to find what maybe and possibly the ministry should be. And here's the test. When it's become about us, when it's become about us, all of our focuses will be where? It's not hard. It'll be on the instruments. It'll be on the music. It'll be on style. It'll be on feeling. Emotionalism. And guess what will be sidelined always in these places? Always, always, always. The witness of the word. The witness of the word. Lord does not bless that. Hear me. People can think they're doing something. The Lord is not blessing that. And that leads then to the second point, the identity of John, which translates to the identity of any witness. Think of the questions here. Who are we, right? That's what they ask him. They come up to him and they say, well, then who are you? You tell us who you are. Notice that John won't even mention his name. I find that fascinating. John himself won't do it. John takes the scriptures and applies it to something that has always been in the line of the prophets. Notice what he says. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. I am the voice. Now we typically, when we hear that, go right to Isaiah as John does here. But there was a long history of this. That the whole book, the Gospel of John, the author here, the Apostle, has Exodus on the brain. And think of the history of the voice. Who did Moses represent? And who was Aaron? I want you to listen to this conversation for a moment. and you'll see how it ties to Isaiah. This is Exodus 4. Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart, and you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people, and he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. He was a preparatory voice. But Moses did the speaking. Moses would be the central figure when Israel was saved out of Egypt. And that was all type of things to come. That whole arrangement. Did you notice here that John, The Baptist father was Zacharias, a priest who descended directly from Aaron. He functions as the voice. The voice for what? Well, before John, we look more at this. Just think for a minute of what he applies here. And it's one of these rules that when you have a quote in the New Testament, they're telling us to go back and look at what surrounded that quote in the Old Testament. And he quotes here Isaiah. You'll notice here that he says, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness as the prophet Isaiah said. Listen to Isaiah 40 for just a minute carefully in what was in John's brain for his ministry. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The voice said, cry out. And he said, what am I to cry? So the voice was telling another voice to cry out. What? What do I say? What do I say? All flesh is as grass. And it's loveliness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. What was the voice to do? What was to cry in a dark, barren wilderness? You in a barren wilderness? That's what we're living in. What is it to cry? What do I cry? What do I say? You're all dying. You're all dying. And that can come tonight. John made the religious leaders furious. You know why? Because he was pressing them to repent and turn to the Savior. You are dying and you are under the judgment of God. How dare you talk to us that way? I don't want to hear that. You better stop saying that. In our day, he would have divided things so sharply. He would have divided things. Nobody in this building right now would have been able to sit here neutral. Nobody. He would have preached and so pressed you that you would have either repented and run to Jesus or you would have ran out of here furious. What a terrible preacher and a terrible place. Biggest turnoff. In fact, if you had a church that said John the Baptist Reformed Church, isn't that a crazy oxymoron? it wouldn't be very well attended. He wouldn't let you be neutral. He wouldn't let you come up here and just want to feel good about yourself. He would have made us so uncomfortable in the pew, you would either get baptized, you would come, I'm going to get baptized. And I'm bringing my children. or you'd bolt, never see you again. No fence sitting. No fence sitting. People who came out to see John the Baptist didn't come out for the wrong reasons. And if they did, they were gone. John wasn't a guy up on stage, you know, casual, telling short stories on a bar stool so that you would be happy with yourself. Wasn't a fireside chat, wasn't a pep talk. It was repent or you're going to perish. Let me give you an example of it. Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. And don't begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you, God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which is not bare good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Let me ask you, would you stay around after that? Would you be mad at the preacher? What are we doing when we come here? Soren Kierkegaard. not always a model of what's good and right to speak about, but said something I found fascinating, I read. People have an idea that the preacher is an actor on a stage and they are the critics blaming or praising him. I've kind of experienced, I think that's true. I think that's a general, I'm the actor up here on stage and you're going to walk away and say, well, I like the message today or I didn't like the message today. I like how it was formatted or I didn't like how it was formatted. It spoke to me or it didn't speak to me. Question is, am I the one being evaluated or are you? He says, what they don't know is that they are the actors on the stage. He, the preacher, is merely the prompter standing in the wings reminding them of their lost lines. I like that. I think it could be adjusted a bit, but when God sends voices, they are telling us all we need, that we are the ones. They are telling you, you're the ones standing before God. And the issue for you is, what do you do with what the voice is saying? What do you do with who the voice is presenting to you? because the voice is leading you to someone. And that's the most exciting part of this message this morning. That is the most exciting part of this message. Listen to what Isaiah said in Isaiah 40 right in the middle. Comfort, yes, comfort my people. Say it says you're God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare's ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. O Zion, you who bring good news, get up on the high mountain, O Jerusalem. You who bring good news, lift up your voice and with strength lift it up. Be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, what? What am I supposed to say? Ready? Behold your God. Your God is coming to you with a strong hand. His work is before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. His arm shall rule for him. His reward is with him. His work before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young. What is a voice supposed to do? you're all perishing. You're all dying. The judgment is coming. You can't prevent that. But guess what? I've got good news. I'm bearing glad tidings of great joy. Verse 10 of Isaiah 40 said, Behold your God. Now you understand exactly what's happening in verse 29 of our text. The next day, look at it carefully, when John saw Jesus coming toward him, said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He. Here He is. Isaiah's on the brain. This is Him. Isaiah 40. Your God has come to you. And guess what? He is... What does he say? After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. He's eternal. I've been telling you that. Bring glad tidings. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Your God is coming with a strong hand. Here he is, John. Here he is. Look at him. I'm telling you. I'm bearing witness. Here he is. And I saw the Spirit descend on him from heaven like a dove. Everything the Old Testament Scripture said about the day of renewal, the day of the Spirit, the coming of the salvation, the day of refreshment. It's all come. Here He is. He's the Lamb. Remember the Passover Lamb? Israel? You came out of Egypt on that blood. Here He is. Remember Isaiah 53, Israel? He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. This is your God. The fulfillment of it all has come. You see how taken John is by Jesus. He's the Son of God. I'm declaring it to you. He is who we're talking about. He is who this is all about. I've seen Him. I know Him. I've met Him. And He changed my life forever. The effectiveness of your witness, the effectiveness of Christianity's entire witness has to do with this issue. How much has it affected you that the eternal Son of God got off the throne and took on human flesh and came down here and was pinned to a cross to save you from all your wretched sin? He's here. He came. He will repair Jerusalem. He'll feed the weary. He'll bind up the brokenhearted. This is what John wants you to see. John was willing to decrease so much for this truth and increase Jesus that his head was put on a platter to die for it. People died for this because it's the way. Behold your God. You need to ask, why are you in Christianity? What are you involved with? Why are you here? Who are you following? The most important truth has ever been announced. But it's a truth that has to be taken into your hearts and believed for it ever to change you so that you will even want to talk about Him. May we learn to decrease and increase Christ. It's about His glory. It's about His kingdom. It's about His name. And aren't you glad? Let's end right there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the Word that prevails against all earthly powers. And thank you for your son. Forgive us that we have played fast and loose with your church, not even taking seriously the message, wanting other things. And the only light that is given to this lost world. Today we were able to witness the inclusion of a child into your kingdom. The only way that was ever possible was because your son came here. and died for us. Our God, thank you for saving us and thank you for building your kingdom. May we be more and more humble and may the joy of this work flow out of our hearts as we speak to others and become witnesses to this great salvation. Hear our prayer board and thank you for a day of worship. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.